


Routines

by MeeemWho



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Denial of Feelings, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-15 09:12:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14787659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeeemWho/pseuds/MeeemWho
Summary: Rakan is a hurricane of a person. He'll come in and change up everything you thought you knew about yourself and make everything different.As Xayah and Rakan's relationship changes, so too does their routines. From an unwilling friendship, to a comfortable partnership, to unconditional lovers.





	1. Companions

"Oh this?" Rakan pointed at his thigh, where a patch of skin seemed to be a different texture. "One night I knocked over a lamp while dancing up a storm. Did not end well, for me. Or the lamp for that matter."   
  
Xayah was combing her hands through Rakan's hair as he pointed at different scars on his body. They had made a small campfire beside a river and were in the middle of their nightly preening routine, a tradition started by Rakan after seeing Xayah wake up with one too many bent feathers. As much as she hated to admit it, Xayah found herself looking forward to the intimacy he had created with this ritual.   
  
The air was filled with the noise of insects and wild animals, and the fire was warm and crackling with fresh wood. Xayah could feel a vague sense of magic in the air, but it may have just been all of the energy Rakan put out naturally. He had been tagging along with Xayah for about two months now, and she was more and more getting used to his presence, and maybe even his affections. She would never admit it, however. The battle she was facing was too dangerous for her to imagine him staying for too much longer. Not every night could be as peaceful as this.   
  
"And if you feel right behind my ear, you might be able to tell where I had a piercing once. Never again." Rakan was still pointing out his nicks and scratches around his body. He had taken off his armor and cloak so Xayah could see all the spots where he had been marked in some way. The burns on his legs, the calloses on his feet, and the one time he got too familiar with a stranger who left him with a sharp, white line across his forearm.   
  
"So, Xayah, what's your story?" Rakan suddenly turned his head to look back at her. Xayah had also taken off her cloak, but kept her dress and leggings on. Rakan gave her a look to turn around, and she sat as he began to thread his hands through her cape of feathers.   
  
"You probably already know I have too many to count." Xayah remarked. "I doubt you'd have the patience to hear about all of them."   
  
Rakan scoffed. "I'm afraid you haven't heard my true title yet. They call me," he bowed with a flourish, "Rakan the Listener".   
  
She let out a little chuckle at that. Rakan was one for the dramatics, after all.   
  
"Maybe later, it's getting late and I don't want to distract you." She flexed her wing at him. "We have to get up early if you want to actually stay somewhere indoors tomorrow night."   
  
"Alright then, Xayah." He sighed. "But someday I will hear your stories, and everyone will know of the brave warrior who didn't bow after her first scar, or her second, or her thousandth!"    
  
She could feel his pride and determination somehow. But he would never know.   
  
Xayah sat and tried to relax as Rakan worked his magic into keeping her comfortable. It wasn't hard, Vastayans have a way of being able to influence others fairly easily. She could feel him using the slightest bit of magic to relax her, as the knots in her back seemed to be massaged away without him touching her. All he did was comb his fingers through her feathers, one by one, until they were all puffed and clean from the days travel. As he began to untangle her hair, she began to daydream.   
  
She could use this window of time as Rakan watched over her to plan, to think, but recently, she's been caught in a fantasy of her feelings. She knew it was dangerous to admit that she actually had some kind of interest in Rakan, so she let her emotions go into her fantasies.    
  
She could imagine what it might be like if she wasn't always on the run. How they might have met while he was visiting her town. How he would have stuck around to try and catch her eye while she helped her town. How they might have settled down in a small home. How he would hold her tight when she got scared. How he would have sounded as they...   
  
"What cha thinking about?" Xayah jumped as Rakan whispered into her ear from out of nowhere. She had let herself go again, it was just too easy to as he massaged her scalp.   
  
"Nothing of interest, Rakan." She huffed. "Are you done yet?"   
  
"Almost." replied Rakan. Lifting his hands from her scalp, he took her hair and threaded it behind her head and tied it with a little piece of sinew.   
  
"Now I'm done." He proudly declared, as Xayah stretched her wing and pulled the ponytail he made tighter.

“About time.” Xayah remarked, as she stepped away towards the blanket she called a bed. 

She could see the twigs and rocks Rakan had cleared away in a pile just outside of their camping circle. Rakan moved over towards his own “bed” of a couple blankets and some of his own down. He could naturally make a small nest that seemed annoyingly more comfortable, but nesting down with him would just make it harder to keep denying his affections, so she stayed with her own worn blanket.

“You know…” Rakan started, as he began to fluff his own bed, “it wouldn't be so uncomfortable during the night if you just let me make your bed for you? You'd enjoy it, I promise.”

He always had a question for her before they went to sleep. First it was, “Let me join you.” Then, “Let me groom you.” And now it's, “Let me comfort you.” She had said no so many times, and she wasn't going to give him a yes now. Not tonight.

“No.” She said. Quickly, routinely, and expectedly.

“Alright then,” Rakan sighed, “Maybe tomorrow?” he asked again.

Xayah pretended to be sound asleep already. Although she had only just covered herself with her wing. She wouldn't be falling asleep for a while, and even when she did it would be short and tense. But Rakan took her silence as a no, and rummaged himself into a comfortable position before closing his eyes.

 

* * *

 

That night, Xayah rose a couple of hours before the sun. She got up and looked across at Rakan, deeply asleep and breathing slowly. She got up, grabbed her cloak and walked towards the forest.

It would be easy now, to just run from him and get rid of the distraction in her journey. Her purpose was so important to the future of their kind, too important to think about him so much. She started walking into the forest and took a second to look back. She could just see the glimmer of his golden feathers against the sandy riverside. She could feel his magic essence begin to fade from her presence as she took another step into the forest.

Instead of running off, she climbed into a tree and began to sit and scan for movement anywhere. If she wasn't going to leave, she might as well try and get something to eat before they started moving again.

 

* * *

 

Rakan opened an eye to see that Xayah had disappeared again. He gently moved his head and just caught a glimpse of her iridescent feathers in a tree, again. He smiled, and decided to finally try and get some rest before they left.


	2. Friends

“Shut up and hold still you moron.” Rakan let out a loud hiss as Xayah once again put the cloth, damp with liquor, onto his chest.

It was stupid. He was stupid. Rakan had let himself get too close in a fight and left with another wound. Thankfully it was just a shallow blade wound, but could fester into something bad if it wasn't tended to properly.

“Don't you think you're being a little - ack! - a little overkill with the alcohol?” Rakan stuttered as he flinched with every small dab onto his cut.

“Well,” Xayah began, “If you hadn't let that human follow you into our room we wouldn't be having this problem now, would we?”

She knew she was being harsh, but this was the second time this week her partner had gotten hurt. They had to move from their room in an inn to a damp cave just outside a large farm. At least the moist surroundings gave solace from the blistering heat during the day, as Xayah could tell they would need a night or two to lick their wounds before moving again. Rakan had already taken care of the cuts left on Xayahs arms from the ambush, so it was her turn to tend to him.

After a quick wipe with the cloth, she brought out some sap they had harvested from a tree and slathered it over his wound. The healing salve would close the wound quickly, but any rough movements would surely open it again.

“There. Now don't do any backflips for a while and you'll be fine you big baby.” Xayah poked his collarbone for emphasis before moving to prepare their camp for the night.

“But how can I not be, extravagant for so long?” Rakan sighed and collapsed on the floor with a large  _ huff _ . “I'll surely die. Make sure I have an open casket funeral at least, please Xayah?”

She laughed. More and more she found herself entertained by his antics and jokes recently. They had begun to fall into a certain routine again, in and out of the battlefield. When they were fighting, he was fire incarnate. Every movement had a purpose, a goal, much like Xayah’s fighting style. They had fallen into a great synergy, where Rakan would dazzle and prepare while Xayah would strike, quickly and deftly. Rakan was a force to be feared in battle. Outside of battle, however…

“Have I told you the story of our kind yet?” Rakan asked, as he began to unroll their blankets and make them into a nest of sorts. “Not of just, the Vastaya, of course I've been singing that forever, but of our kind? The Lhotlans?”

Rakan seemed like he could flick a switch from brash and loud to someone more collected and sincere. He had recently started to sing to Xayah more and more. Every night would be filled with his smooth voice lulling Xayah to calm down.

Then began the usual actions. Xayah began to unpack the cooked fish they planned to eat at the inn while Rakan cleaned and made their beds, humming all the while.

He never failed to give attention to every detail. His down cushioned every place that Xayah needed, and he left a single healing feather on the top just in case she got another migraine during the night.

By the time Rakan finished his beds, Xayah had the fire going with a little of her own magic. She had removed most of her clothes, leaving her wearing a camisole and shorts for decency. Neither of them minded however, five months of traveling together made moments like these far from awkward anymore. All Xayah was focused on was trying to clean off some of the blood that found its way into her dress.

Rakan had already cleaned his clothes, and he also slipped out of his outer garments to be more comfortable as he started digging into his meal.

“So, what do you think about going to a festival soon?” Rakan asked, mouth full. Xayah only responded with a glare.

“Okay,” Rakan reasoned, “how about if I tone it down a little?” 

Xayah sighed and looked back at Rakan. “If by a little, you actually mean ‘I'm going to become invisible for this event so I don't get us caught’, then yes.” She smirked and moved over to join Rakan with her half of the meal.

It wasn't to say that he was in extreme danger by going, she could handle a few guards. It was… other reasons. Reasons that totally had nothing to do with a certain number of women fawning over Rakan, Xayah assured herself.

She shook off the thought as they settled into a comfortable silence over their food. Rakan was the first to finish, so he moved over to Xayah and began to preen her. He moved his fingers through her hair and feathers as he began to sing to her.

 

_ “So now we fly ever free, _ __   
_ We're free before the thunderstorm. _ __   
_ On towards the wilderness _ __   
_ Our quest carries on. _ __   
_ Far beyond the sundown, _ __   
_ Far beyond the moonlight, _ _   
_ __ Deep inside our hearts and all our souls.”

 

It was a little inspirational thing he had been singing for her for a couple of weeks now. Most of the time, it was during battle, to keep her encouraged while they fought. But now he turned it into a soothing lull. She could one again lose herself in his voice. His smooth tenor came out in moments like this. He could calm a mob, or move a troop to fight, or charm a stubborn traveling partner perhaps…

“Xayah, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, Rakan.”

“Will you dance with me?”

The same question, again. This one he had been asking for longer than any other. Xayah knew, she was just certain, that saying yes could change everything. He was a battle dancer, who could charm an unwilling person in the midst of a battle. He had never used her magic on her without permission, so she didn't need to worry about his influence in that way. But she knew, deep down, she craved his touch so tender and close. That giving in would mean accepting her feelings she never wanted.

“No, maybe some other time.”

Rakan scoffed. “Well, you miss every shot you don't take, right?” He chuckled as Xayah began to groom him.

After their relaxing grooming, Xayah was finally ready to try and sleep. Recently it had become harder for her to get rest at all, they were within a days travel of her old village, and just thinking about them could send Xayah on a downwards spiral for the night. But Rakan had the solution for this.

As Xayah laid into her specially made nest, Rakan stood towards the back wall and began to test the reverb. He would hum scales and short tunes until he finally found a spot that made his voice sound divine. And finally, he sang his lullaby.

It wasn't a lullaby in normal, human terms. Rakan grew up having to sing this to calm so many different people, from the sick, to the insane, and even his captors once. It was an indescribable tune mixed with magic and emotions that could only come from years of practice. She had heard it a couple of times before he started doing it for her, but for her, it was different.

She would never know, but Rakan had changed it in a completely unexpected way. At first, he would be inspired by many different things. He would call on the energy of life, or the knowledge of his kind, or a childish excitement, but Xayah needed something else. Something so peaceful she could finally have a true, deep sleep.

So Rakan sang. He sang of an emotion that not even he could understand. He sang his love for Xayah, until she finally began to rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im going to try and keep updating this regularly, like every 2 days. Not sure how much there is left though, maybe 2 chapters at least.
> 
> Soon I'll be posting another fic, this next one is in an au of my own design, so stay tuned.

**Author's Note:**

> When nobody writes the fic you want, be the change you want to see in the world. This is really just a warm up series so I can start writing big fics for my favorite couple. Thanks for taking the time to look at my stuff.


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